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Wednesday, October 14, 2009

The Biggest Loser Week 5: Lots of spoilers in this one.

Seriously, there is just no way to talk about this episode without giving things away. Here's your last chance to avert your eyes.

This was the week that they went from teams of two to Blue Team and Black Team. All the players had the option to try to win the chance to pick the teams. Guess who won? At this point, the players are getting really superstitious about Tracey: "She has the ability to take control of the game anytime she wants to." Coach Mo said that when Tracey stepped up to play, a strange wind kicked up and there was the sense that she was definitely going to win it.

Of course everyone was unhappy with the way Tracey picked the teams, though they looked pretty fair to me. She split up two sets of partners that were really attached to each other. She loaded up her team with players who had huge weight loss potential. Seriously, though, the drama over the teams started to seem overblown. In a way, I think that Tracey stacked the deck against herself, because the chances of her being the week's Biggest Loser consistently are really small, given all the huge people she has on her team.

Besides, Tracey must not be as bad as she seems to me on this show. If she was, would her team have let the perfect opportunity to get rid of her slip by and instead vote off a completely harmless player? It may be a case of selective editing. Still, I was furious that they chose to keep her, until I realized that Coach Mo was in serious pain day after day, and really needed the opportunity to go home and rest. He seemed to be doing well on his own and even sharing what he learned with kids in his neighborhood.

Still, in Season 6, the contestants let a similar chance to get rid of Vicky slip by, and I think they regretted it. Maybe this season's Blue Team will have the same problem, or it may be that this batch of contestants has figured out that they can either stew over Tracey's decisions, or they can take control of their own weight loss. Because, really, crying because your partner is on the other side of the gym from you seems a little silly, doesn't it?

There was a commercial on this show that really caught my attention. I have been saying for a long time that when the show was winding down, there would be a launch of "Biggest Loser" resorts. It's not that I'm psychic, it's just such an obvious next step: The show has perfected the science of big-number weight loss, and it seems only reasonable that people would be willing to pay a lot to have the chance to try it for themselves:

I too, was shocked by the team not getting rid of Tracey (crazy eyes as my kids call her)! She's a manipulating boo hoo-er "It killed me sob sob to have to sob sob write down his name sob sob boo hoo". The blue team made a very bad error by not getting rid of her . . . even if they lost the next round weigh-in - they could of then gotten rid of Mo, if his chronic pain was holding the team back.

I think you might have nailed the selective editing thing - though I'm pretty sure both trainers have had their patience tried with Tracey.

About This Blog

Here's the first post from this blog, back in July of 2006. It gives a brief introduction to my weight history and my goals for a a sane, healthy life. I think it's the best introduction that I can give you to this blog and to what this weight management thing is all about for me. You can also look back to my stats when this blog began.
My highest weight ever, sometime around 1995, was probably around 215. I'll never know for sure, because I wouldn't go near a scale at that time in my life. I made Lifetime in Weight Watchers in 2002, but as you can see, that did not end the battle for me.
This time around, I'm taking things slowly and trying to be sane about it. My goal now is to have a life where weight isn't something I think about much. I just want to be happy with who I am and how I look. Wish me luck.